DnB How to get rid of the muddiness

[MentalFrame]

Hey guys!

New tune of mine. Just need a few opinions on my mixdown and the muddiness which is freaking me out.
I'm producing for 2 years now and I'm making progress. But it's getting harder with every tune I make to get rid of unwanted noises, muddiness and things like that.
Maybe it's just me but I think this all could be a lot cleaner.
But how?

And if you hear other things than that, please let me know!

Thank you

https://soundcloud.com/mental_frame%2Fpak-choi-wip

 

[maschinistom]

hello! love the arp intro, right on my street ...
u are right, there is some muddiness ... try scoping/EQing things out.
there is tons of video online .. below just one example.
otherwise nice track, love the synth work !!
PS: be careful, after the drop the everything is ducking ..

 

[Leniz]

For some reason your song wont load for me :/

 

[MentalFrame]

hello! love the arp intro, right on my street ...
u are right, there is some muddiness ... try scoping/EQing things out.
there is tons of video online .. below just one example.
otherwise nice track, love the synth work !!
PS: be careful, after the drop the everything is ducking ..

Sure youtube tutorials, I feel like a dummy know
Yeah ducking after the drop is a major problem of mine. I think it's too compressed.
Well, thank you for your kind words!

For some reason your song wont load for me :/

Oh too bad. Checked it, and it is working for me.

 

[Joey AdhD]

you have to whip out the unwanted frequencies off each sample, lets say you have a hi hat sample, this will contain a slight bit of bass, you have to get rid of it and focus on your hi ends and any noise off the sample you have imported, if every sample you are using has bits of unwanted frequencies, all these frequencies add up to make the muddy sounding effect. I only learnt this last week...run it through some decent monitors and your EQ with a waveform to get the right curve for each sample and you should start to get a clearer sound.

I hope that helps, its basically what the video said

 

[ifanmusic]

Nice little tune mate. As everyone has been saying, eliminating muddiness is about eq really. Just have a spectral analyser on every track to see if there's any frequency you don't need and get rid of it. For instance, if a hi-hat loop has a bit of rumble at like 100hz you don't need it so cut it out. Sidechain compression can help too

 

[MentalFrame]

you have to whip out the unwanted frequencies off each sample, lets say you have a hi hat sample, this will contain a slight bit of bass, you have to get rid of it and focus on your hi ends and any noise off the sample you have imported, if every sample you are using has bits of unwanted frequencies, all these frequencies add up to make the muddy sounding effect. I only learnt this last week...run it through some decent monitors and your EQ with a waveform to get the right curve for each sample and you should start to get a clearer sound.

I hope that helps, its basically what the video said

Nice little tune mate. As everyone has been saying, eliminating muddiness is about eq really. Just have a spectral analyser on every track to see if there's any frequency you don't need and get rid of it. For instance, if a hi-hat loop has a bit of rumble at like 100hz you don't need it so cut it out. Sidechain compression can help too

Thank you both for listening and for the tips. Appreciate it!

I get the idea of cutting out unwanted frequencies. It's just kinda hard to recognize them. I guess it's just a thing I'll learn through time.
It's so disturbing because I know what's going on, I'm just not able to fix it yet, if that makes any sense

Well, but thank you guys!

 

[WhoSayReload?]

Thank you both for listening and for the tips. Appreciate it!

I get the idea of cutting out unwanted frequencies. It's just kinda hard to recognize them. I guess it's just a thing I'll learn through time.
It's so disturbing because I know what's going on, I'm just not able to fix it yet, if that makes any sense

Well, but thank you guys!

It's not that hard if you use a spectrum analyser and just take your time EQing bypassing / turning bypass off to make sure you're not ruining the sound, try not to do too much work in solo either as it has to work in the context of the track.

 

[Sinai]

Yeh as previously said its all about the EQ. There are quite a lot of high frequencies in the track at the moment which need to be tamed (the crash for example). Use multiple EQ's for each element if needed. Fab Filter EQ's seem to be more concise & gentle without being too aggressive. As WhoSayReload said, using a spectrum analyser will tell you exactly what frequencies are clashing.

 

[Focal Shift]

sounds a bit like your snare is cancelling itself out, if it's layered try flipping the phase of each layer until it starts to sound fuller

 

[MentalFrame]

It's not that hard if you use a spectrum analyser and just take your time EQing bypassing / turning bypass off to make sure you're not ruining the sound, try not to do too much work in solo either as it has to work in the context of the track.

Yeh as previously said its all about the EQ. There are quite a lot of high frequencies in the track at the moment which need to be tamed (the crash for example). Use multiple EQ's for each element if needed. Fab Filter EQ's seem to be more concise & gentle without being too aggressive. As WhoSayReload said, using a spectrum analyser will tell you exactly what frequencies are clashing.

Thanks for the tip with the spectrum analyser! Works just fine!
I'm working with Abletons EQ 8 and I'm kinda digging it. Is it too harsh compared to Fab Filters EQ?

sounds a bit like your snare is cancelling itself out, if it's layered try flipping the phase of each layer until it starts to sound fuller

Now that you say it.. Thanks will take care of that!

 

[gregorkarbowski]

nice tune! For me it sounds like the crash and the second very high filtered sound are to harsh and a bit to loud, it sounds like they do a lot of damage on the overall compression/limiting

 

[Sinai]

Thanks for the tip with the spectrum analyser! Works just fine!
I'm working with Abletons EQ 8 and I'm kinda digging it. Is it too harsh compared to Fab Filters EQ?

The EQ's on ableton are really good, but you can be more thorough & precise with the FF plugs. Definitely worth getting the bundle.